66,000 pupils miss school every day

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Ministers blamed parents for taking their children on holiday during term time and called on travel companies to offer cheaper deals during school breaks.

Truancy was twice as bad in the Government's flagship city academies - which are backed by wealthy private sponsors - than other secondary schools in England.

In all English state schools, pupils skipped 7.5 million school days through truancy or "unauthorised absence" between September last year and April this year.

Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said pupils missed 530,000 school days over the autumn and spring terms because they were on holiday without teachers' agreement.

"Parents must recognise that even a couple of days' 'unofficial holiday' can have a negative impact on their child's progress," he said. "Travel companies have a role to play in keeping prices competitive during school holidays.

"While I sympathise with the financial pressure on parents when planning holidays, no cut-price deal is worth harming a child's education for."

The problem of term-time holidays was worse in primary schools than in secondaries.

The figures from the Department for Children showed truancy or unauthorised absence in secondary schools rose between spring last year and the same period this year.

In the spring term this year, pupils failed to show up for 1.61% of all secondary school registration sessions, up from 1.49% in spring 2006; an estimated 66,000 pupils were skipping class every day during the spring term this year, with 19,000 missing from primary schools and 47,000 from secondary schools; nearly 40,000 pupils from both primary and secondary schools missed half the spring term through absence, including sickness and holidays which were authorised; and 273,000 pupils were away for nearly three weeks during the spring term alone.